Episode 1500

Mister Rogers arrives with a collection of animal paintings made by some young friends. After looking at the paintings, he invites viewers along as he visits the Neighborhood Zoo.

At the Zoo, Mister Rogers meets Barbara Bingham who allows him to help feed the panda bears. Mister Rogers then goes on to see elephants, giraffes, tigers, and lions.

Back at the house, Mister Rogers talks about there was not a zoo nearby when he was a child. It was during a parade when he was able to see different kinds of animals.

In the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, the parade is underway in celebration of Ana's birthday. Led by a drum-playing Purple Panda, the parade includes a whale, an elephant, Bob Dog, a clown, Mr. McFeely, and Lady Aberlin. As the parade passes by the Platypus mound, Lady Aberlin presents Ana with her birthday gift -- the pet kitten she had hoped for.

Moving on to a smaller celebration, Daniel Tiger and Prince Tuesday enjoy a birthday picnic with Ana and Lady Aberlin. Daniel give Ana the truck he made for her while Prince Tuesday recites a birthday poem. Back at the castle, King Friday is none too happy as he feels that birthdays should celebrated in grand fashion. Something as small and quiet as a picnic is unacceptable! However, as he and Handyman Negri arrive at the site of the picnic, King Friday realizes that not everyone thinks like he does -- "My my. Everyone likes different things."

Back at the house, Mister Rogers reinforces the idea that small and simple is okay and oftentimes better than loud and extravagant. After talking about the many ways that Ana was shown love on her birthday, Mister Rogers wraps up for the week by singing Many Ways to Say I Love You.

Notes

Typically, when a character is featured on an episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, no matter how small their part, the cast member behind that character is listed in the credits. On this particular episode, we see Purple Panda leading the parade but none of the usual cast members who played Purple Panda is credited.

As Mister Rogers goes to see the elephants, We Are Elephants plays in the background.